It’s March 2015, and its been about 10 days since Greece worked out this year’s deal to fend off its creditors. Here’s a podcast from NPR’s Morning Edition from 3 years ago, discussing how Greece will find a way to pay back the IMF first. Greece hinted this past week... Continue reading

One of the things that makes understanding government policy hard is that it is couched in terms where the alternatives are left unsaid. Case in point: Obama's opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline. This week he blocked it once more.... Continue reading

An op-ed from our local newspaper: Just to make sure the search engine bots catch that text, it's: "I vaccinate my kids because I'm not crazy". The majority of the arguments I've heard against vaccinations come from questionable sources and... Continue reading

Greece was not able to complete a final version of its proposal for reforms today. Greece had promised, as part of Friday’s agreement, to have that proposal finalized by Monday. … Even the few extra hours sought by Greece’s new... Continue reading

My advanced macroeconomics class has been covering this winter’s Greek crisis. We’ve talked a little bit in class about 1) how contemporary Greek society has been … hmmm … not so good for the 180 or so years that Greece... Continue reading

Science Fair was required in elementary school: Yep. There's nothing like encouraging kids in science like forcing them to do something, and getting their parents involved in something frustrating. Not to mention arbitrary. I think elementary schools keep a list... Continue reading

Lorde, of course I love this. Perhaps because I’m known for being able to fake a moo so well myself that I’ve “called” cows. It’s actually kind of frightening … much better when they don’t care you’re there. Via Kottke.... Continue reading

John Michell, writing in Philosophical Transactions, in 1784 (!!!) hypothesized that if a star was big enough its gravity would preclude the escape of light: basically a black hole. His logic isn’t quite the same as we use today: he... Continue reading

A map where each dot is a bridge: I find it weird to note the not-so-obvious places without bridges: much of Florida, southeastern Missouri, West Virginia. These aren’t dry places, but I guess that they’re drive around places. It’s also... Continue reading

Apparently there’s a furor over Joni Ernst’s response to the state of the union address. Some people find it amusing to make fun of Ernst for her recollection of putting bread bags over good shoes. Megan tears them a new... Continue reading

This is actually a video, but since it’s just an interview without much action, I’ve posted it here for you to listen to. Here’s an interview with Daniel Klein. He’s an economics professor at George Mason University, who’s set as his task reclaiming the word “liberal” from progressives, since it... Continue reading

Here’s an interview with Daniel Klein. He’s an economics professor at George Mason University, who’s set as his task reclaiming the word “liberal” from progressives, since it was originally applied to a philosophy we now associate with libertarians. This issue should resonate with SUU students. Our school was designated as... Continue reading

Stores that sell cannabis problems in states where that is legal have a working capital problem. They generate huge amounts of cash, but are inconvenienced by federal laws that make routine banking problematic. Technorati Tags: working,capital,management,finance,cannabis Continue reading

Stores that sell cannabis problems in states where that is legal have a working capital problem. They generate huge amounts of cash, but are inconvenienced by federal laws that make routine banking problematic. Technorati Tags: working,capital,management,finance,cannabis Continue reading

An important point to get across in economics is three-fold: 1) monopolists are everywhere, 2) most of them aren’t profitable, and so 3) they don’t stay open. The example I often give in class is that I am a monopoly... Continue reading

An important point to get across in economics is three-fold: 1) monopolists are everywhere, 2) most of them aren’t profitable, and so 3) they don’t stay open. The example I often give in class is that I am a monopoly provider of my own hip-hop music (videos and clothing too... Continue reading

Ya’ know, I’d noticed this, but it hadn’t bugged me. Then a student asked if I could fix it. Way back when, I’m sure that Excel only opened up one spreadsheet at a time. Then at some point they allowed... Continue reading

How do you tell if a number can be divided by 7? Check out this "divisibility graph" from David Wilson writing at Tanya Khovanova's Math Blog. This method ends up working out kind of like a kids board game like... Continue reading

I’m not going to claim that Japan is in great macroeconomic shape. In per capita terms, the country may not have peaked around 1990, but there certainly was a big kink in growth rates that occurred at that time. And... Continue reading

We’ve always done it this way is already a part of my “What Makes Macro So Hard” lectures. This one is subtly different: presenting the way we’ve always done things as something new. Essentially … regifting. Here’s Thomas Sowell discussing... Continue reading

From Esther Inglis-Arkell: Homeopathy claims water can cure you, because it once held medicine. That's like saying you can eat off an empty plate because it once held food. Cut it out, people! Homeopathic products are remarkably common in health... Continue reading